Space exploration will soon tip into space industry on the Moon. Few see it coming in the din of other vast changes wrenching us into an uncertain future. This is an arena we can trace out more concretely that other coming transformations. By 2100, if we aren't transformed, likely we'll be extinct. So, let us use this lens to contemplate what we might become.
For that, we provide a digitial world showing an advanced lunar town. Here we examine the science and technology behind it.
Lalande Crater
Right near the center of the moon's face as seen from Earth is a crater visible with a small home telescope. It sits at the edge of the dark 'seas' of basalt that cover much of the moon's near side. The lunar highlands, which are much older and more rugged than the basalt seas, begin with low hills just beyond it's east rim. This is Lalande, a very young crater 23 km wide and 3 km deep. The impact that created it a billion years ago threw up megatonnes of debris with far higher concentrations of thorium than all but three other tiny hotspots on the moon. That indicates the concentrations of rare earth metal in the area are also a lot higher than elsewhere.
Mass Transit
All the Stuff
What's Happening
The Big Stuff
Autonomous Factories
Autonomous Mines
Massive Energy
Buildings Containing Towns
